Qld Queensland State Election 2024

[swingdog]

I think only systems that don't have full preferential voting are various upper chambers such as the Senate with a combination of partial preferential voting and proportional representation? Queensland doesn't have an upper chamber.

One benefit to moving away from full preferential voting is that it means more votes counted where a voter has a clear preference but has failed to fill in a ballot correctly. And as a general role more inclusive voting rules could be considered 'better' or 'fairer'.

But can't imagine it's an altruistic angle so there must be some benefit to the LNP in there somewhere... probably because of a lot of seats where Green votes flow to ALP or vice-versa to get over the LNP; if some of those Greens and ALP voters voted "1" for their party but didn't put a preference for the other ahead of LNP, that's a win for the LNP.


Equally true for any right-wing minor party preference flows into LNP... but realistically the Greens/ALP situation is the most significant source of meaningful preference flow in the country.

Especially since he also wants to make voting non-compulsory. That would make us more like the US, an electoral system nobody should copy.

 

[Rotayjay]

The Coalition is obsessed with copying anything American, so naturally they want to Americanise our voting system.

I think they also want to stop people giving their primary vote to a minor far-right party but being too stupid to preference the LNP over Labor. That is, they want to exercise their right to vote for a far-right non-LNP party, clearly prefer the LNP over Labor, but are dumbarses and put Labor at (say) number 3 and LNP at number 4.

If said dumbarse has optional preferential, they might just think 'LNP will win this seat anyway and Layba is bad so I better vote LNP'.

 

[Xtreme]

A vote for the LNP is a double whammy, Anastasia should have stayed the course and gotten voted out properly. But she jumped before she could be officially dumped.

 

[RedStarUncle]

The Coalition is obsessed with copying anything American, so naturally they want to Americanise our voting system.

I think they also want to stop people giving their primary vote to a minor far-right party but being too stupid to preference the LNP over Labor. That is, they want to exercise their right to vote for a far-right non-LNP party, clearly prefer the LNP over Labor, but are dumbarses and put Labor at (say) number 3 and LNP at number 4.

If said dumbarse has optional preferential, they might just think 'LNP will win this seat anyway and Layba is bad so I better vote LNP'.

Much more likely the far-right voter would still vote for the minor party and LNP would lose the preference flow.



But it's usual reactionary stuff based on the current norm. If it was the other way around and the Greens were sitting at 2% while One Nation and Katter were pulling in 10% each statewide.... ALP would be the ones calling for optional preferences and the LNP bleating that it'd be unfair. None of them are interested in a genuine fair election just whatever favours them.

 

[tandino]

Much more likely the far-right voter would still vote for the minor party and LNP would lose the preference flow.



But it's usual reactionary stuff based on the current norm. If it was the other way around and the Greens were sitting at 2% while One Nation and Katter were pulling in 10% each statewide.... ALP would be the ones calling for optional preferences and the LNP bleating that it'd be unfair. None of them are interested in a genuine fair election just whatever favours them.

That's not even a hypothetical. We know that to be the case because it has been the other way around in the past and the ALP used to be all for optional preferential voting.

Candidates, Informal Voting and Optional Preferential Voting

In the final week of parliamentary sittings, Queensland LNP Senator James McGrath tabled the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM’s) inquiry into the conduct of …

antonygreen.com.au

If you remember this point, that OPV helps the candidate and party with the highest first preference vote, you understand why Australia’s two major parties have swapped their opinions on OPV over time.

It is not a swap based on principle, or supporting something that voters want, but rather on the basis of self-interest at the time.

In the days when DLP preferences helped the Coalition win seats, Labor supported OPV and the Coalition opposed it. One of the Labor Party’s icons, Gough Whitlam, was a supporter of OPV and tried to implement it while Prime Minister.

Another Labor hero, Neville Wran, implemented OPV in NSW in 1980. He also entrenched it in the state’s constitution, and many a Labor figure has since cursed OPV’s entrenchment as the rise of the Green’s has removed Labor’s former advantage over the Coalition on first preferences.

OPV disappeared from Labor’s policy platform in 1991, a year after compulsory preferential voting played a significant part in the Hawke government winning a narrow re-election.

Since 1990, it is overwhelmingly Labor and minor parties that have benefited from CPV, and the Coalition that has found itself on the losing side.

Politicians do what politicians do.

 

[GrayRanga]

Consider that preferential voting was introduced by Conservative parties due to minor parties splitting the Conservative votes leaving the Labor Party to win the first past the post vote.

Basically, it was a way to consolidate the Conservative vote in rural/regional areas with the rise of the Country Party which which split the vote of Conservatives.

Of course, Queensland's conservative party in the LNP rather than the Coalition arrangement in other States and Federal Parliaments